The field of the invention pertains to machines that continuously produce chunks of hard ice and, in particular, to machines such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,803,869. Such machines are extensively used to supply ice for the restaurant business and for ice packs in treating athletic injuries.
From extensive experience in servicing such machines, applicant's have found them subject to breakdown from excessive ice buildup on the freezing plate. The excessive ice buildup is typically caused by an excessively low inlet water temperature to the reservoir that supplies a uniform level of water to the freezing plate of the ice making machine. The excessively low inlet water temperature arises from fluctuations in the building or utility water supply to the ice making machine.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,367,127 and 4,020,644 disclose means for heating the inlet water supply to the automatic ice forming element of a refrigeration apparatus. The heating means are effectively uncontrolled and apply heat to the inlet water regardless of need.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,629,229 and 2,685,175 illustrate means for cooling beverages that include a motor driven stirrer for the beverage and a refrigerant condenser fan on the stirrer motor. The stirrer motor is cooled by the fan attached thereto.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,805,101 and 4,020,642 illustrate means for cooling the refrigeration compressor motor by passing the refrigerant directly through the motor windings.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,159,007 discloses a condenser fan motor that also drives the impellers for scraping and mixing inside a frozen confection machine. The load on the fan motor and heat rejected by the fan motor are partially a function of the frozen consistency of the confection forced through the mixing chamber of the machine. The above devices, however, are not directed to controlling excessive ice buildup in a continuous ice making machine.